Wishing everyone a great holiday season and spectacular 2011. As usual, our friends at NORAD are tracking Santa again, so keep an eye out.
Frank Almond
Barber redux
This weekend I’ll be playing Samuel Barber’s violin concerto with the Milwaukee Symphony and Edo de Waart. I’m really looking forward to it for various reasons, and I’m reminded again how underrated he still seems to be as an artist. Centenary anniversaries are good for reexaminations.
Que sera, sera, Sarah.
For 25 years, the eminent violinist Sarah Chang has established herself as one of the superstars of the classical music world. I’ve always admired her phenomenal abilities and genial personality, and have sat next to her countless times as CM with various orchestras since we first met about 100 years ago at Juilliard. Now she’s been the victim of harassment and abuse. Or maybe not.
Tick Tock
I figured I’d try to get one more post up this summer, which obviously wasn’t my most prolific as far as writing.
The situation in Detroit could eventually have a profound impact on anyone with an orchestra job- it’s sort of a perfect storm involving one of the country’s most esteemed ensembles. The outcome there could be a bellwether for the business in certain ways, and the whole situation is worth observing very closely.
A Question of (Ir)relevance.
Around this time every year, I find myself reviewing the past season with its inevitable peaks and valleys, and try to process it all in some kind of meaningful way. For me it’s very helpful to think over the litany of chamber music concerts, solo dates, and orchestra concerts to try and digest what actually happened from more of a distance. Happily, this year I often find myself mentally replaying some of the high points of our orchestral season here in Milwaukee, the first under our new Music Director Edo de Waart. Clearly the orchestra is at its artistic peak (at least during my time there), and overall morale is pretty high, even with the requisite financial challenges we have in common with so many other orchestras. That’s very unusual in our business these days, as some recent articles have reminded us…
Still No Excuses
Like a lot of string players, I spend quite a bit of time trying to play in tune. I realized pretty early on that there were lots of factors involved, and in fact it’s really an endless quest from a purely mathematical standpoint. Over the years some of my colleagues (especially pianists) dismissed my efforts as a little too obsessive (and maybe not all that successful), but a recent article indicates I’m not so crazy after all. At least about that subject.